After years of remaining silent, Muriel Cousin claims this week in ELLE magazine to have been sexually assaulted by the PAF’s best-known psychoanalyst, Gérard Miller.
This Wednesday, January 31, the magazine ELLE by lot an edifying investigation into the PAF’s best-known psychoanalyst, Gérard Miller, 75 years old. Three women accuse him of sexual assault and rape, notably during hypnosis sessions. Among them, the journalist and ex-companion of the comedian Stéphane GuillonMuriel Cousin.
Also read: Psychoanalyst Gérard Miller accused by three women of rape and sexual assault during hypnosis sessions
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Born on January 31, 1966 in Saint-Cloud in Hauts-de-Seine, Muriel Cousin is a well-known figure in the French audiovisual landscape. It was in 1994 that the young woman entered the spotlight by participating in the cult France 3 show, “La Classe”. Her presence on the small screen was confirmed when she landed a position as a columnist in Christophe Dechavanne’s emblematic show, “Coucou c’est nous!”, where she replaced Sophie Favier during the 1993-1994 season. In 1996, Muriel Cousin made an impression by participating in the hit show “Fort Boyard”, alongside personalities such as Bruno Solo and Jean-Luc Reichmann: an episode “which marked the history of the game for the ungovernable conduct of the candidates”.
Face on TV, voice on the radio
Over the years, Muriel Cousin broadened her scope of action. She made an appearance on Stéphane Bern’s show, “20h10 pêtes”, broadcast on Canal +, and she also became one of the familiar faces of “Touche pas à mon poste”, between September 2010 and March 2011, where she brings his critical eye and his spicy humor.
But it’s not just on television that Muriel Cousin officiates. On the radio, between 2000 and 2010, she distinguished herself as a columnist for programs such as “Le fou du roi” on France Inter, where she shared her analyzes and anecdotes with Stéphane Bern, or even in “C’ What the hell is this?” on Europe 1, with Laurent Baffie, in the early 2000s.
Read also“In all honor”: when PAF psychologist Gérard Miller spoke of hypnosis to Thierry Ardisson
In a relationship with Stéphane Guillon
On the private side, Muriel Cousin shared the life of the famous music producer Valéry Zeitoun, with whom she had three children, and the comedian Stéphane Guillon from 2005 to 2018, with whom she had a daughter named Violette, born in 2011. She directed the latter’s shows, and co-wrote some of his columns for France Inter. Despite their separation, Stéphane Guillon remains an unwavering support of Muriel Cousin. As evidenced by his speaking out in the magazine’s investigation Elle published this Wednesday, January 31 in which several women testify to sexual assault and rape perpetrated by the famous psychoanalyst Gérard Miller, during hypnosis sessions: “Muriel spoke to me about it from the start of our relationship, confides- he. Every time she saw Miller on television, everything came back.”
Muriel Cousin and Stéphane Guillon on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. (May 20, 2008.) Getty Images
“I also felt his hand pass over my penis”
In the columns of Elle, Muriel Cousin claims for the first time to have been a victim of the doctor’s actions in 1990. At the time, the columnist was 23 years old and had just agreed to be the “guinea pig” of Gérard Miller, aged 42, for first sessions under hypnosis. “The scene often comes back to her, in flashes (…) the silhouette of the psychoanalyst crouching next to her. Hands passing over his body. Her voice, as she sinks into a daze, neither quite asleep nor quite conscious,” write journalists Cécile Ollivier and Alice Augustin. Then to relay the words of Muriel Cousin: “Suddenly, something in my brain brought me out of torpor. I told myself that something unusual was happening. He was touching my breasts under my sweater. I also felt his hand pass over my penis, over the pants.
Also read: Psychoanalyst Gérard Miller accused by three women of rape and sexual assault during hypnosis sessions
At the time, Muriel Cousin explained that she had not spoken to anyone about it. When she returned from the session, one of her colleagues nevertheless noticed her discomfort. “I asked him how the session went. She completely closed herself off,” the latter declared to the magazine.
If the investigation of Elle does not specify what pushed Muriel Cousin to speak today, that is to say almost eighteen years later, an event could be one of the triggers: the broadcast of the extract from a documentary by the psychoanalyst , dating from 2011. In The Ruses of DesireGérard Miller had questioned, “with relish”, the director Benoît Jacquot about his relationship with Judith Godrèche, when she was 14 years old and he was 40. A sequence which resurfaced on social networks after the speech of the actress in December.